French-Armenian painter Richard Jeranian has died in Paris at the age of 98.
Richard (Khachatur) Andranik Jeranian was born in the city of Sebastia on 17 July 1921, and lived in France from the age of 7. From 1938 to 1942 he studied at the School of Fine Arts in Marseille, and from 1946 to 1948 at the Académies de la Grande Chaumière and Julian in Paris.
Jeranian created mainly realist landscapes, still lifes, graphic compositions, and depictions of the female form. Throughout his creative life, the artist held numerous exhibitions in various cities around the world (Paris, Marseille, Beirut, Tehran, Geneva, Munich, New York, Washington, Dallas, Yerevan, Gyumri, and others), and received a number of awards.
Since the Soviet years (starting in the 1950s), the artist exhibited regularly in Armenia. In 2011 he came to Armenia for the last time, and a solo exhibition of the painter’s work was opened.
In the words of art critic Lilit Sargsyan, R. Jeranian seemed to serve as Armenia’s “artist-ambassador” in Europe, and Europe’s in Armenia.
